One Piece: Starting with Creating the Strongest Character Design

Chapter 87 Island-wide Lockdown (Please Subscribe!)

"The prisoners held in Area A were themselves research supplies sent by the World Government."

As Vegapunk spoke, his eyes lowered, and his face showed reluctance.

"They were being held in the basement of Building A."

"Nominally, they are all executed prisoners. Therefore, there are no Den Den Mushi in most areas of Building A."

After Kitahara Tsune recounted Caesar's nighttime visit to Building A, Vegapunk was already mostly convinced.

After all, in this Punk Hazard, apart from Caesar, very few people actually conducted human experiments on those death row inmates.

Only he would appear in Building A in the middle of the night.

However, he still held a sliver of hope.

Despite his dislike for him, Caesar Clown had been his colleague for many years, and everything the other party had done on the surface had not exceeded the scope permitted by the World Government.

Vegapunk followed Kitahara Tsune, the two walking one after the other, seemingly chatting casually, towards Building A.

After confirming that no one was around, Kitahara Tsuneo officially led Vegapunk to the room where Caesar had conspired with someone the night before.

Only now did Vegapunk finally let go of that last sliver of hope.

"This place is very close to where those death row inmates are held," Vegapunk said in a low voice. "And there aren't any surveillance Den Den Mushi here."

"In any case, let's impose a complete island lockdown first."

Vegapunk sighed, took out the button he always carried, and pressed it.

嘟—

A dull sound came from Kitahara Tsune's ear, but nothing seemed to have changed around him.

Kitahara Tsune looked at Vegapunk and asked, "What just happened?"

"The entire island is under lockdown."

Vegapunk replied, "From now on, all entrances and exits to the island will be closed, and no one will be able to leave Punk Hazard."

Kitahara Tsune nodded in realization and asked, "Won't this arouse their suspicion?"

Vegapunk chuckled and said, "Don't underestimate scientists. The artificial and modified creatures on the island are quite powerful in combat."

"If someone attacks from the outside, even a great general can hold them off for a while."

However, Vegapunk changed the subject, saying, "From my personal perspective, I have great trust in Rear Admiral Kitahara Tsune, but we do lack evidence to prove that Caesar made a deal with the Beast Pirates."

Before Vegapunk could finish speaking, Kitahara Tsune interrupted him, saying, "I want to try and see if we can just capture Caesar Clown."

"No, that's too dangerous," Vegapunk said. "I'll gather the cyborgs and artificial creatures on the island to hunt down the suspicious person. You don't need to rush."

"Mr. Vegapunk, I'm quite confident in my abilities. You just need to tell me which areas of the cave contain important resources, and I'll try my best to avoid those areas during the fight."

Kitahara Tsune, suppressing his excitement, uttered those words.

Seeing Kitahara's decisiveness, Vegapunk stopped trying to stop him and said, "Alright, I'll cooperate with you as much as possible. I'll sync the footage from the surveillance phone to—"

Before he could finish speaking, Vegapunk noticed that the surveillance phones that used to be everywhere in the corridors of Building B had gone completely dark.

Seeing that Vegapunk remained silent, Kitahara Tsune walked to his side and saw a completely black screen in front of him.

"It seems Caesar was prepared all along," Kitahara Tsuneo said.

"It seems I can't help you," Vegapunk sighed. "I hope you can catch that Caesar guy."

Kitahara Tsune nodded, took a step, and headed towards Building B.

Meanwhile, Caesar had already become aware of the situation on the island.

"How did you end up hiding in my lab?"

"Are you trying to get me arrested?"

Caesar shouted at the 8-meter-tall miniature giant in his laboratory.

"Stop talking nonsense! If it weren't for your plan, I wouldn't be this weak."

The little giant looked down at Caesar, who was floating on the ground, and roared.

He is none other than Jack the Drought, one of the three great calamities of the Beasts Pirates' "Big Sign".

Not long ago, his colleague Quinn heard that Caesar lacked funds to research artificial Devil Fruits.

And coincidentally, Lord Kaido also intended to form an artificial Devil Fruit army.

However, without Doflamingo as a cover, their reach cannot extend to Punk Hazard.

There was no other way but to make Jack, being a fishman, suffer a little, and had Jhin throw Jack into the sea area near where Punk Hazard was located.

The reason it went undetected was because that area happened to be the sea area where Caesarcourt had applied to conduct explosive experiments.

This is the tacit understanding between Quinn and Caesar.

After Caesar met Jack, the two hit it off immediately; one needed funding, and the other needed a product.

Yes, Caesar's artificial Devil Fruit project is indeed only lacking funding.

The experiment has yielded preliminary results, producing SAD substance and creating the first artificial Devil Fruit, SMILE.

However, due to insufficient funds, mass production was impossible.

He had already squandered all the government funds.

"Once I've rested, I'll take you with me," Jack hummed.

"Where can you find such a good experimental environment outside? Can't you be a little more careful?" Caesar shouted.

Then Caesar was glared at by Jack, and immediately shrank into a corner.

To conceal his presence and the perception of his Observation Haki, his older brother Queen even put seastone handcuffs on him, making his life force extremely weak.

If it weren't for his fish-man bloodline, he would have truly died at sea.

While Jack was resting, Caesar was monitoring some of the data from the entire Punk Hazard.

Suddenly, a disturbance appeared on his screen.

"Oh no! Punk Hazard is under complete lockdown!"

Caesar exclaimed in surprise, but his hands kept moving as he pressed several buttons.

Last night, he had already made preparations. Using the properties of the Gas-Gas Fruit, he released gas into all the surveillance Den Den Mushi in the corridor, ready to detonate it at the slightest sign of trouble.

And now is that time!

The gas equivalent was controlled perfectly, without making any unnecessary noise, and several poor little Den Den Mushi died on the spot.

Meanwhile, Vegapunk has notified all researchers and soldiers in Building B to evacuate.

Modified and artificial creatures have also gathered under Vegapunk's control, ready to deal with any unexpected events.

Kitahara Tsune stepped into Building B and finally felt a sense of relief.

"finally----"

He asked Vegapunk which area was more important and what items were placed there.

This is the moment we've been waiting for.

Kitahara Tsune did not go directly to Caesar's laboratory, but instead went to the Devil Fruit processing center on the ground floor.

There are fruits from every year stored there!